


Black and Blue

by AutisticWriter



Series: Whumptober [10]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bruises, Friendship, Gen, Hangover, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Prompt Fic, Swearing, Whump, Whumptober 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 14:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16286756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: When Jin needs to leave the country, he asks Koichi to look after Kyouko. But things get a bit complicated when Koichi turns up the Kirigiri residence injured.[Prompt 10: Bruises]





	Black and Blue

When his cell phone starts ringing, Koichi awakes with a jolt.

“Wh-What the fuck?” he mumbles, anxiety pulsing through his aching body.

He hauls himself into a sitting position, eyes half open and his head pounding. His phone continues to ring, the chimes too loud and hurting his ears, and Koichi finally identifies the sound. Koichi fumbles for his phone and unlocks it, the screen too bright for his eyes even at minimum screen brightness, and holds it as close to his ear as he can manage.

“H-Hello?”

“About time,” Jin says. “I’ve been ringing you for three minutes. But you’re finally awake.”

“Yeah, ‘m awake,” he says, a groggy smile crossing his face. “Hey, Jin. Isn’t it too early to be calling?”

“Koichi, it’s ten in the morning.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He hears Jin sigh. “Are you hungover?”

Koichi stifles a yawn, longing for the fog inside his brain to clear. “Course not.”

“Yes, because I totally believe you,” Jin says. Because of course Jin can see through his lies; they’ve known each other for so long (they literally met in junior high, and have been friends ever since) that they know each other inside out. “Look, I know you clearly feel like shit, but I need a favour.”

Jin’s right; he does feel like shit. His head pounds and his stomach churns and he needs a drink so badly, but Koichi has always been skilled at coping. Besides, being hungover never stops him going to work or otherwise living his life – he just does it whilst feeling like shit and sneaking drinks from his hipflask.

“I wouldn’t bother you on your day off, but it’s urgent.”

“Okay, I get it. What d’you need me to do?” Koichi says.

As he and Jin talk, he reaches for the cabinet beside his futon and pulls out a bottle of vodka with slightly trembling hands. He puts his cell phone on speakerphone and pours himself a shot, and swigs it.

“My mother called and said my father has had a stroke,” Jin says. “And now I need to fly to America to sort everything out. Please, can you look after Kyouko for me?”

Koichi smiles, shoving the bottle back in the cabinet. “Need a babysitter, eh? Well, sure thing. I’ll be there soon, okay.”

“Thank you,” Jin says, and he can hear the relief in his normally stoic friend’s voice. “Thank you.”

Koichi hangs up and hauls himself to his feet, gritting his teeth when pain throbs inside his skull. He needs to help out Jin, help out his friend who has always stuck with him despite his clear problems with alcohol, by looking after little Kyouko for him. Kyouko also knows Koichi is an alcoholic (that kid has amazing intuition and is always going on about being a detective, so it makes sense), but she and Jin never doubt his abilities to be a competent caregiver. Plus, Kyouko likes it when Uncle Koichi comes over, so it should be nice to hang out with her.

All these thoughts swirl around Koichi’s still-foggy head as he gets dressed and ready to leave, making sure to fill up his hipflask and slip it into his inside breast pocket – and to put some of those candies Kyouko loves in his pocket as a gift for his niece in all but blood. And he manages a real smile as he leaves his apartment, his hat resting on his messy hair –

And that is when he trips.

At the top of the staircase, Koichi puts his foot on the top step and starts to walk down, but he realises a bit too late he forgot to tie his shoes and steps on one of his laces. He loses his balance, his knee buckling, and he makes a frantic grab for the banister. But it’s too late.

A frantic yelp escaping his throat, Koichi falls. He tumbles, shoulders and knees and back smacking into the sharp edges of the stairs with every roll of his body, forced into painful backwards-summersaults as he falls. He desperately tries to grab something, but succeeds in bending his fingers back so far they click instead. He just falls and falls, everything screaming in pain and gritting his teeth to stop himself screaming too.

And then he hits the hallway floor with a thump, and just lies there.

The adrenaline starts to dissipate, and the pain hits him. It pulses in his shoulders and flares in his knees, and warm blood dribbles across his back. He didn’t hit his head, but it hurts worse than ever.

“Fuck,” he gasps, glaring at his untied laces.

Today isn’t going well for him, is it?

\---

“Are you all right to stay home alone for an hour or so until Uncle Koichi arrives?” Father had said, ruffling her hair.

Of course she said yes; she is ten years old and a detective in training, far more mature than other children her age. And so Father gave her a kiss on top of her lilac hair and waved and promised to be back in a couple of days.

But there is one problem: it has been over an hour, and Uncle Koichi still hasn’t arrived. Father was probably being overgenerous with the time it would take her honorary uncle to arrive (he only lives half an hour away), so for him to not have turned up in the hour and six minutes since father left is troubling.

Especially considering that Uncle Koichi is an obvious alcoholic. Both he and Father have never called it that (Father usually says Uncle Koichi has ‘a bit of a drinking problem’, whilst Uncle Koichi usually grins awkwardly said says something about liking ‘booze a bit too much’), but she knows he suffers with alcoholism.

So perhaps… does his lateness have something to do with that? Does he have a hangover and find himself unable to get out of bed? Is he going into withdrawal and had to go to hospital so the delirium tremens didn’t kill him? Or has he got himself injured? Kyouko thinks hard, and deduces the latter makes the most sense.

Sure enough, when he finally arrives, Kyouko finds her deduction was correct. She looks through the spy hole almost half an hour later than he should have arrived, and finds Uncle Koichi on the other side of the door.

She opens the door, and nods her head in an informal bow at her uncle. “Good morning, Uncle Koichi.”

“Hey, Kyouko,” he says, smiling. “Sucks about your grandpa, but I’m sure your dad can help. Can I come in?”

“Of course. You’re my babysitter, after all.”

Uncle Koichi grins and steps into the house, limping slightly. And Kyouko studies him, eyes flicking to his bloodshot eyes and pale face, to his unlaced shoes and messy appearance, and his tense body language when he moves. He bends over to take off his shoes, and makes a noise like a barely suppressed wince, jaw gritted. Yes, he is in pain.

“Are you injured?” Kyouko says.

Uncle Koichi stares at her, and grins an incredibly forced smile. “Um, well, a bit sore, I guess. I fell out of bed earlier!”

“You sleep on a futon.”

“Oh yeah!” he says when she shoots through his contradiction. “Can’t fall out of a bed on the floor, can I?”

“No, you can’t. What did you do?”

“Just tripped and fell. Banged my knee up pretty bad.”

Kyouko frowns. “Can I see?”

“I guess so,” Uncle Koichi says.

She nods her head and takes his hand, leading him into the sitting room, noting the slightly flinch when she gripped his right hand. He collapses onto the couch, groaning in pain. And with Kyouko’s persistent gaze on him, Uncle Koichi rolls up his left pants leg and shows her his knee.

It.. is quite bad. Clearly not fractured, but still badly injured. His knee is red and puffy with swelling, dark bruises already starting to form.

“You weren’t wrong. This is bad.” She looks up at his face. “Any other injuries?”

“Nope, that’s it.”

“Really? Because you flinched when I took your hand a minute ago.”

Uncle Koichi stares at her. “What is it with you? How can you see through someone like that?”

Kyouko’s lips twitch into a rare smile. “My intuition. Please show me your hand.”

He sighs, but it is a fond sigh, and holds out his right hand. She studies his palm, and notices deep red marks pattering the palm side of his fingers, the swelling gouged horizontally across the middle knuckle of his four fingers. He appears to have gripped something, only for a sharp edge to dig into his hand without breaking the skin.

“What happened?”

Uncle Koichi chuckles weakly, and reaches for his hipflask. “There’s no need to worry, but I kinda fell down the stairs earlier.”

“You kind of… fell down the stairs?” Kyouko says, repeating his words. So that’s what happened to his hand; he tried to grab onto a step on the staircase in a futile attempt to keep from falling, but it simply dug into his flesh, probably bending his fingers backwards in the process. “How can you say that so casually?”

He laughs again. “I guess I’m just good at being clumsy.”

Yes, because you are drunk, Kyouko thinks, but she doesn’t dare to say it. Instead she looks at him, frowns and heads off to get him some ice for his injuries.

\---

After using the toilet, Koichi stares at his reflection in the Kirigiri house’s bathroom. He washes his hands, wincing when the off-blue bruises on his fingers sting, and swigs some alcohol from his hipflask the moment he has finished. He can’t see them with his clothes on, but the bruise on his knees and the bruise and gash on his back are also black and blue, and throb whenever he moves or sometimes if he breathes too deeply. Ugh, he feels like shit.

But he has a job to do. He has to look after Kyouko until Jin is back from the US, and he’ll be damned if a few injures stop him from looking after the girl he sees as he niece. After all, he’s an almost-functional alcoholic; if being so pissed he’ll get DTs if he stops drinking doesn’t stop him, some bruises definitely won’t.

Still, he wishes the pain would fuck off. He doesn’t want to worry Kyouko and her detective brain, and he wants to be able to sleep.

He just wants everything to be okay.


End file.
